WWE Tough Enough Episode #4 Review
Welcome one and all to episode four of our TJR Tough Enough review. I want to take a quick second and thank everyone for the response I’ve been getting on these reviews. We all agree the format sucks, but if I keep you entertained while we suffer through this together, then it’s worthwhile for me to sit down for an hour and watch this dumpster fire. With that said, let’s see who gets eliminated this week before we even know if they can actually wrestle.
After our opening video we go to Chris Jericho who is wearing a mini scarf because he just couldn’t stay away from the scarf. The lovely Renee Young went back to white this week, she will not let the show hold her down. We go to the judges and as much as I love Paige, her outfit is a step down this week. Don’t let the show get you down Paige! The judges give a quick quip and Renee reads us the rules again.
We go back to last week when the competitors return after Daria was eliminated. We have a new female waiting on them named Chelsea Green who is replacing Dianna for quitting. Chelsea is a former student of Lance Storm, if I can be serious for a moment. Just that alone makes her the one I want to win the most now. She was also on Raw last year as Daniel Bryan’s “physical therapist” although that’s not mentioned.
Gabi and Amanda start going at it, and Gabi goes straight for Amanda’s boobs. They’re arguing about fake boobs which they both have…we’ve reached a new low.
The next morning the competitors meet the coaches in the Performance Center and this week is going to focus on promos. Booker T shows them a montage video of some of the best promos in pro wrestling history. Hogan, Flair, Rock, Jericho, and……. King Barrett?? I thought this was promo class, not “how to stay relevant in WWE when they don’t have a clue what to do with you”?? I digress. Barrett tells them what the basis of a promo does and how they can use it to their advantage. Barrett cuts an impromptu promo on the fact that there are three King of the Ring’s in the ring right now, but the other two reigns have ended and all hail King Barrett. It was better than anything he’s done on Raw recently, so that’s something.
The competitors are now going to cut promos on Barrett on why they’re going to be next year’s King of The Ring or Queen of the Ring. As is customary for this show, we only see one line of each promo, so no way of knowing who was good or not good. And just like that, Barrett’s appearance comes to an end. His matches with R-Truth lately were longer than this segment.
Now the competitors go to the Orlando Improv for what they think is a nice night out. Patrick puts two and two together and realizes they’re probably going on stage. Sure enough, here comes Chris Jericho on stage. He announces that this week is a promo battle. The competitors will go head to head against each other to see who can cut the best promo. First up is Mada vs. Josh.
Mada channels his best Muhammad Hassan and Josh sticks to his British Brawler gimmick from last week. Crowd picks Mada. Chelsea and Gigi are next. Chelsea lists what you need to be a wrestler, Gigi shows some personality and she wins. Tanner bores me in 30 seconds, who goes against Patrick and Patrick schools him. Absolutely owns him. Patrick wins going away. Gabi and Amanda are next. Gabi explains why she’s here, and goes against Amanda who promptly calls her a bitch to get the crowd victory. Sara Lee and ZZ are last, Sara Lee bombs again and ZZ gets the victory.
Jericho comes back on stage after they’re done and tells ZZ that he wants to see some fire and intensity from ZZ. ZZ has a personality, and a good one, but he’s gotta learn to switch gears. Jericho goes serious and tells Sara Lee it pisses him off that she’s still here. Jericho tells her to prove she should be here. He tells her to stop laughing, but she says she likes to piss him off. Jericho lays into her to stop being nice and stop laughing, but she doesn’t get it. She tries to step up at the end, but she still has a smirk on her face. Some people just can’t be mean I guess. Hey, how about that Divas segment on Raw? Am I right?
We go back to the judges live who are in mid discussion about Sara Lee already. Paige says she doesn’t belong here because Jericho tried to get it out of her and she wouldn’t do it. Hogan says she’s trying, but Paige said she isn’t and it’s frustrating. We go to an odd commercial. That seemed a little forced.
We’re back at the Improv and Jericho calls up the winners. The crowd is to decide the overall winner. Patrick far and away wins the challenge and Gigi is picked the winner for the girls, so we have two three-peat champions.
RANT TIME! You want to know what’s wrong with this godforsaken show?? It’s this little beauty said by Mada in his confessional. Again, this is a direct quote “The only reason Patrick won is because he was speaking to the crowd so he got them riled up. Me and Josh were the only ones who cut real promos today and he knows it.” WHAT IN THE HELL?!? A REAL promo is something that does speak to the crowd and gets them riled up!! The fact that the majority of these people couldn’t give you a definition of a wrestling promo if you held a gun to their head is the reason this show sucks!! Unbelievable. And Mada has been one of the few bright spots on this show, but that is just an idiotic thing to say, and he actually believes it which makes it worse!! RANT OVER!
Mada then proceeds to tell Patrick that his promo was bullshit. Patrick calls Josh a sidekick and I swear it sounded like Josh said, “I ain’t no sidekick you fuckhead.” Then Josh throws a drink in Patrick’s face. Patrick actually maintains his composure as Mada makes a fool of himself. Josh grabs for Patrick’s throat, but before anything real can happen, the show producers break it up and everyone goes their separate ways.
Back to the barracks and the women are all together and wondering how Gabi hasn’t been in the bottom three yet. There’s a lot of bickering that I don’t care to recap. Apparently Gabi doesn’t want to be “the bitch” anymore, but no one else buys it.
Chelsea and Tanner are now in a bedroom and establish to each other that they’re single. Tanner says he has needs. Chelsea says he’s cute. She goes for a hug, he goes for a kiss. The streak of guys making a bold choice continues for a 4th week. She didn’t seem to hate it, so maybe it finally worked out for one of them.
We return to the judges and Paige says it’s one of the most awkward things she’s ever seen. Hogan says Tanner has no game whatsoever, while Daniel Bryan tries to defend him for being smooth. We go to another odd commercial. They’re apparently trying to change the feel of the show, but it’s coming across all sorts of awkward.
Renee welcomes us back with the rules of the show and Jericho says that we’re getting real now on the show. That’s debatable. We return to the Performance Center and the coaches says it’s time to get physical. What a concept!! Marcus Louis from NXT is helping the coaches and they’re going to learn shoulder tackles and bodyslams. The guys do all their bodyslams clean. Sara Lee can’t even be picked up properly. Seriously. That’s all they showed for the girls. Now it’s time for combos. Lita gives props to Amanda and Gabi for working together despite their issues. Billy Gunn is losing his patience with Sara Lee, she can’t pick up someone right and still won’t allow anyone to pick her up properly. She almost has Gigi drop her on her head. Billy tells her to get out of her head or out of his ring. She finally gets it right at the end. Too little too late. The coaches picked Josh and Chelsea as the most improved. We go to commercial.
Back to the barracks and the girls all comment on Sara Lee’s performance. She of course starts to cry instead of getting mad about it. She feels deflated because the coaches are yelling at her. That’s not gonna bode well when Paige gets to her tonight. As we return to Jericho and Renee, Jericho says he doesn’t feel bad for what he did because there’s a difference between yelling and trying to motivate. He’s trying to get something out of Sara, and get her to show something but she hasn’t done so yet. They then introduce us to everyone who is on the stage now. We go to commercial.
After a Full Sail plug, Jericho throws it to the judges and Paige instantly calls up Sara Lee. Paige says she’s not trying to pick on Sara, because anything they throw at her, she can’t do it. At this point, she’s not even mad, she’s disappointed. Paige says she wouldn’t trust Sara to pick her up, nor would she trust to pick her up. Sara and Paige get into a yelling match because Sara is annoyed that she’s constantly picked at. Paige screams at her to show some passion. Daniel and Hogan give their positive spin on things, and then Hogan calls up Mada. Hogan says Mada won the promo battle since he stayed in character and brought it the whole time. Hogan calls up Patrick and calls him out for his promo and says that he could make him look like a fool in the ring even with nine back surgeries. He thinks Patrick acts like a smart mark and he wants something different. Jericho reminds Hogan that Patrick won the challenge, but Hogan said the promo sucked. Patrick takes it in stride and asks Hogan for clarification on what he wants to see and accepts the criticism. Hogan, you’re a legend, but you’re wrong to pick a fight on that one. Hogan was mad that Patrick said that the days of Hogan and Warrior and big guys were done. Don’t take it personally, brother.
Jericho asks Josh what a sarcophagus is, and how to spell it. Apparently I missed something where that came from. Paige spells it correctly. Now it’s time for the bottom three. Paige picks Sara Lee with no hesitation. Sara isn’t happy. Daniel picks Gabi since she didn’t even know what a promo was. Hogan picks Tanner this week because he’s faded into the background and completely bombed on his promo. Jericho says this week the bottom three get to cut a 30 second promo on the judge who put them in the bottom three.
Gabi goes first and does not cut a promo. She tells Daniel why she deserves to stay. It’s boring and bad. Everyone pick her. Daniel says it’s a promo, not a resume. Tanner goes next, and he’s not cutting a promo either. My God people, IT’S NOT THAT HARD. This is just awful. Sara’s turn and the crowd gets behind her. Sara gets into Paige’s face and actually cuts a promo, What a concept. Paige is impressed and gives her a standing ovation as she walks back to her desk.
My Take on Who Goes Home: Let’s just send everyone home. The competitors, the judges, and especially Jericho. Let’s get 13 new people and bring back Steve Austin. My goodness. It’s like I tell everyone that comments on these reviews, I say things to make myself laugh to keep myself from crying. It’s that bad. Anyways, as bad as Sara was in the ring, I think she gets it. She just has one hell of a shell to break out of. Gabi doesn’t get anything about wrestling, doesn’t understand the concept of a promo, and I honestly think when it comes time to work an actual match and get down and dirty, she’s not going to want any part of it. So I pick her. But really, any of the three are deserving.
It’s now time to find out who’s going home. Renee recaps the voting structure one more time and turns it over to Jericho. Jericho asks the safe competitors who should go home. They all say Gabi. Jericho asks the judges if they want to use their save this week and they all say no again. Jericho tells Sara that she’s not going home this week. Sara had 63% of the vote, so she stays as popular as ever. Tanner comes in with 26% and Gabi comes in with only 11% of the vote, which I believe is a new low for voting. So good for you Gabi!
Renee gets a quick comment from Gabi about what sent her home and Gabi says she lost her edge and didn’t even know how to cut a promo. Gabi says she’s glad to leave the show, because she wants to train to wrestle, not pick fights. Renee Young is legit blown away by Gabi’s response. If you see Renee’s facial expression, that’s me for an hour as I watch and write about it. Jericho sends us off and that’s our show.
Final Thoughts: I can’t say much more than I already have. Paige is trying way too hard. Hogan is the only one who genuinely seems to want to contribute, even with me disagreeing with his assessment of Patrick. Daniel Bryan is quickly becoming as irrelevant to the show as Chris Jericho is. The right person left for the 4th week in a row, which is really about the only positive thing I can say.
We’ll stick with it though, so until next time for episode five, nice scarf Jericho. You’re not fooling anyone with that one tonight.